The Unsettling of America

In the first section of Chapter 5, “The Domestication of Absence,” Berry critiques the disconnect between modern households and the natural world, focusing on the transformation of homes from places of production to centers of consumption. He argues that contemporary homes are “factories of waste” (56), where people forget their relationship to the environment. The shift away from households being integral to producing food and goods has led to a moral disconnection from the natural sources of life. The modern home, detached from its surroundings and from meaningful work, symbolizes a societal shift toward environmental and ethical neglect. Berry contrasts this with older forms of living, when people’s homes linked directly to their work and the land.

In “The Vagrant Sovereign,” Berry explores the disconnection of modern individuals from their sense of place and moral grounding. He argues that many people are lost in artificial environments that could exist anywhere, leading to a generalized sense of location and a lack of connection to the land. This detachment extends to the moral realm, where individuals believe they are sovereign—free from any natural order or restraint. Berry traces this mentality to European colonization. He references Carl Sauer’s work to highlight how early explorers arrived with a sense of entitlement as they sought to exploit new lands. This conquest-driven attitude established a precedent of exploitation and human presumption. The mentality persists in modern industrialized societies. Exemplifying the sense of human sovereignty over nature are moments like Columbus planting a flag in the New World and, more recently, Neil Armstrong’s claim to the moon, signaling a continuing belief in humanity’s right to dominate and exploit any environment it reaches.

“The Manufactured Paradise” critiques the modern ambition to create an “Earthly Paradise” through human ingenuity and machines. Berry argues that this pursuit stems from a distorted sense of human sovereignty. Historically, humans viewed themselves as positioned between the natural and the divine, but modernity has placed humanity in an unchecked position of dominance over the world. The machine, both as tool and metaphor, replaced the agricultural worldview, turning the earth into raw material for human use. This mechanization stripped away the reverence and restraint that once guided human action, leading to environmental destruction. What industrialization presented as progress is a catastrophic failure disguised as success.

In “The Colonization of the Future,” Berry examines how the modern obsession with the future has driven industrialization and exploitation. Some have romanticized the future as a time when technology will solve all problems, justifying current destructive practices. Politicians and corporations use the fear of future shortages to push for more industrial progress, disregarding the environmental consequences. Berry criticizes this mentality as both exploitative and self-destructive, arguing that by using up resources recklessly, people jeopardize future generations. Corporations push mechanized agriculture in particular on the promise that more industrialization will lead to a better future, though it often results in more strain on farmers and further environmental degradation.

In “Let Them Eat the Future,” Berry critiques a 1970 National Geographic article that glorifies industrial agriculture. He highlights how the article presents technological advancements and increased supermarket variety as revolutionary without questioning the environmental, social, or moral costs. Berry points out the growing indebtedness of farmers, the destruction of rural communities, and the disregard for the negative consequences of industrialized animal husbandry and farming practices. Anchoring the article’s optimism about the future are blind faith in technology and the idea that larger, more efficient farms will save humanity from famine, ignoring the ethical and ecological destruction of such practices. Berry contrasts this techno-utopian vision with the harsh reality facing displaced farmers and farmworkers, critiquing the underlying belief that industrial agriculture can endlessly grow without having to reckon with its human and environmental costs.

“The Organization of Disorder” critiques the vision of fully industrial agriculture. These concepts emphasize total control over farming environments, where technology replaces nature and human involvement is minimal. Berry argues that this obsession with control leads to disorder outside the rigid boundaries of these models, creating vulnerabilities where natural systems once thrived. He points out that these models exclude the complexities of life, health, and human culture, reducing agriculture to a mechanical ideal that ignores the past and fails to consider social, environmental, and ethical consequences. The specialist’s focus on the future and control disregards the present and erases human connections to the land, leading to a dehumanized and unsustainable vision of farming.

In “Where are the People?,” Berry questions the implications of futuristic agricultural models that rely heavily on technology and mechanization, sidelining the human element. He notes that in these models, farming involves few people, and most work occurs remotely or through machines. This scenario reduces people to pure consumers, disconnecting them from the land and their food sources. Berry criticizes this trend as a move toward a totalitarian approach to agriculture, which mechanizes both production and consumption, stripping away the values of personal liberty, dignity, and community. He highlights the contradiction between these agribusiness visions and the preservation of traditional values, questioning the sincerity of those who claim that technological advances won’t harm the family farm or consumers’ quality of life. Berry suggests that society’s obsession with bigness has led to the neglect of small-scale farming and its vital role in maintaining human connections to the land.

In the chapter’s last section, “Deserts of Vast Technology,” Berry critiques unlimited technological progress, as thinkers like F. M. Esfandiary championed. Esfandiary envisioned a future in which advanced technology drives limitless abundance and machines manage both food production and human needs without constraint. Berry sees this as a dangerous fantasy that overlooks moral and ecological limitations, arguing that this pursuit of infinite resources, whether in energy or food, removes human values from both production and consumption, turning people into slaves of machines rather than masters of their environment. He highlights the ethical and spiritual consequences, warning that this deification of technology requires sacrificing everything that is not quantifiable, including the richness of life, work, and community. This totalitarian technological control ultimately disconnects humanity from its natural roots, reducing both people and the land to mere resources for exploitation.

Berry explores energy through both scientific and religious lenses, beginning by asserting that energy is not only a physical force but also an inherent link to people’s spiritual understanding of life. Drawing on William Blake’s notion that “Energy is Eternal Delight” (85), Berry connects energy to moral responsibility. He describes energy as something that humans cannot create but can only refine or convert, emphasizing that its use links to natural cycles of “birth, growth, maturity, death, and decay” (87). He contrasts biological energy, which derives from the natural processes of living things, and mechanically driven energy, which humans accumulate by extracting fossil fuels and other finite resources. Berry argues that cycles of use preserve biological energy, while mechanically driven energy often leads to waste and ecological destruction.

Berry highlights the fundamental imbalance in modern technology, which prioritizes mechanical energy and machines over the biological energy that living things provide. This imbalance, he asserts, led to a destructive disconnection from natural limits and responsibilities. Mechanical energy gives an illusion of abundance and infinite resources, but its extraction and use have severe environmental costs, often turning energy assets into liabilities through pollution and waste. Berry suggests that the pursuit of “limitless” energy reflects human arrogance and an inability to recognize that the use of resources must remain within the finite bounds of ecological systems. He believes that true mastery of energy lies not in attempting to extract infinite quantities but in recognizing the limits and using energy in ways that are regenerative and respect the natural world.

Berry advocates a balanced and restrained use of energy and technology. He points to the Amish as an example of a community that has successfully resisted the pressures of a machine-based society by limiting their use of mechanical energy and prioritizing human and animal labor. In doing so, they have maintained the integrity of their families, community, and way of life, avoiding the disintegration resulting from overreliance on technology. Berry suggests that the path to a healthy and sustainable relationship with energy lies in humanity’s recognizing its partiality and accepting its limits rather than striving for the godlike power promised by infinite technological growth. Through restraint, he argues, humanity can achieve a more meaningful and responsible connection with the world.